Cañon City Council answers 'What is the Strategy for Improving Downtown?'

Cañon City Council

Posted:
05/17/2013 09:30:09 AM MDT

I t seems that everyone agrees that we need and want vibrancy and a suitable variety of businesses downtown. However, some people now point out that recent business closures, or the fact that some businesses are just getting by financially, are a consequence of the intersection improvements. The evidence is the number of vacant store fronts. The Downtown Strategic Plan, adopted last summer by the City Council, identified all of the vacant space in August 2011. The problem was significant then. The Downtown Plan points out that the vacancy problem they refer to is even greater when you consider all of the above-ground vacant spaces. Yes, we have recently seen several businesses fail downtown and some are just getting by now. Unfortunately this is not a new phenomenon; our downtown, while surviving, has not been thriving for some time.

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In general, here is the problem we face. Businesses typically fail or refuse to locate downtown if there are not enough customers. On the other hand, very few downtowns have been able to attract customers without viable businesses and without providing an interesting experience for those customers. Unfortunately, this is not an easy puzzle to solve. The City Council and the people that participated in the Downtown Plan believe we have to address both of these issues simultaneously. Failure to do so will result in further loss of business downtown. This is why the City is undertaking improvements like widening the sidewalks to allow businesses to have outdoor cafes, provide more places for public art, to improve aesthetics and the customer experience, and to accommodate more people. (Yes, we do recognize the need to address deliveries, and this will be done as improvements progress.) Further, this is why the City Council chose to move forward with the first phase of the Macon Plaza, with additional improvements coming soon, where it is our goal to hold frequent events that will attract people to downtown, as opposed to holding such events in parks on the other side of U.S. 50 or at The Abbey property. While those are wonderful community event locations, they pull activity out of downtown.

We also have to do what we can to promote reinvestment in property downtown. You may or may not know that another group of citizens held many meetings early last year to review and make recommendations for changes that should be made to The city's building and zoning regulations. These regulations affect property owners' ability to revitalize their property. The City Council followed through on their recommendations and made those changes. It is now easier for the owners of the historic buildings to make improvements. You may have noticed recently following the Code changes that several people made significant investments improving above-ground floor space for residential living quarters -- providing more places for them to live is one more way to get people downtown. But we cannot forget the other piece of the puzzle.

The City Council and downtown merchants must put into place a formal organization that will specifically focus on strengthening existing businesses and attracting new businesses downtown -- one more recommendation of the Downtown Plan.

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